The Village
School
(as of June, 2004)
Observations
and Experience at
the Roteang TSF English School
By Liese Rajesh
|
In
Cambodia, to have a job at all is good fortune; to have a dependable job is extremely
lucky. Average salaries are $15-$20 per month. Garment workers who work 12-16
hour days earn a good salary of $40 a month. English skills bring jobs in tourism,
business and teaching where salaries range from $100-$350 per month. As a person's
English fluency rises and their cross-cultural skills improve, jobs with NGO's
and foreign trade become available. These are the best jobs of all. In Cambodia,
English is a pathway to a promising life.
The
TSF English School has been offering free English classes to over 340 students
who otherwise would not have access to such training. The school admits students
ages 8-18 from the Roteang Village area. The school runs 15 different levels of
classes from 2:30-6:30pm, five afternoons a week. The classes are taught in shifts
by eight enthusiastic and talented English speaking, Khmer teachers.
Responding
to universal requests from the English teachers for, "more teaching ideas"
and "more techniques for teaching" Liese and Beth spent four days observing
classes and working at the English School. Liese, Beth and the teachers spent
the first afternoon in a teacher meeting. The teachers wanted ideas. Beth presented
the plethora of materials she had brought from the US and Liese introduced four
interactive, communication activities that stressed the communicative use of a
learned grammar point. The teachers tried each activity and at the end of the
day, worked in small groups to create an activity of their own. On the following
three days, Liese or Beth visited each class and either assisted or taught a lesson
according to the teacher's wishes. The experience was challenging, exciting and
because of the intense Cambodian heat, exhausting. Below are some insights gained
from the experience.
* In Cambodia, like China, India and much of the world; most learning is done
through rote memorization and repetition. In language learning, this method often
produces proficient readers and writers, but individuals with weak speaking and
listening skills.
*
A challenge to the teaching staff and to TSF is to continue offering language
learning methods beyond the traditional rote style so that all types of learners
can succeed.
*
Roteang English students are proud and earnest. When called on or observed they
visibly try their best.
*
The Roteang School has none of the showboating or disrespect sometimes seen in
American classrooms Students feel privileged to attend school.
*
The Roteang teaching staff are skilled teachers and are eager and opened minded
about learning new teaching methods.
*
Cambodia is hot. Never attempt to spend an afternoon teaching without many bottles
of water!
For non-Cambodians, the educational system is a looking glass into modern Cambodian culture. The teaching staff is kind, compassionate but strict about expectations and demands. We have already seen English School successes in students like Nut Sunny. Through continued support of the Village School, the English School and the teaching staff, TSF can expect many more children to be led to a path of greater opportunities, rising above the limited economic opportunities normally available to them.
An
Afternoon at Roteang Village School by Liese Rajesh
Driving
to Roteang Village from Phnom Penh is a 40 minute passage from the world we almost
live in to a world we can only imagine. Elephant turns off Highway 1 (Vietnam
Highway) onto the red dirt berm that takes us out to the village. We are 30 feet
above the lotus and morning glory marshes but the monsoon season will soon transform
these lowlands into vast stretches of water. We pass a group of smiling, naked
boys picking lotus waist deep in muck and I imagine my sons there, the peace of
childhood, and the joy of a Huck Finn adventure. On our right we pass a freshly
painted Buddha cloistered in a small weather- protected lean-to. Three days prior,
we had offered 500 riel notes (12 cents) to ancient toothless men who sat alongside
the track in folding chairs collecting toll for Buddha’s new paint.
At
the end of the berm we arrive at solid land and straight ahead pull onto the grounds
of the Roteang Village School. On our left there is a large playground built by
the Sharing Foundation. The playground is like those of days gone by in the U.S.,
steel pipe soldered together in an A frame and brightly painted make the swing
set, plus monkey bars and two slides. Four girls are swinging, each standing on
a swing, passing time, chatting in Khmer.
There
are three buildings. The left and right ones are long and narrow and house five
classrooms each. Elephant pulls his well-worn Camry up under the trees next to
the snack vendor’s table, turns off the A.C., and immediately the heat bakes
through my clothes and I begin to sweat. In the classrooms all around us are the
muffled voices of children learning. The classrooms on the left are full of young
children and through the open windows and doors we can see boys and girls sitting
in rows at wooden desks, the teacher in front. In one classroom a child stands
at the whiteboard and using a crooked stick, touches each Khmer word as he reads
out loud to the class. The left side classrooms have smooth concrete floors. They
are relatively clean and bright, having been recently rehabbed at TSF expense,
with new concrete floors poured and so respected that the children leave their
shoes at the door of each class room when they enter.
The
right-hand classrooms mirror the left only they are dirty. The floors in this
building appear to be packed red dirt, but Elephant says they are a cheap version
of Cambodian cement. They were poured 10 years ago when an official came to view
the school, lasting only long enough for the official to admire the building.
The long gone cement is now a fine red dirt that smears everything. The desks,
the students faces, their copybooks all are coated in this grit. When the breeze
blows, I feel the red silt, which is mixed with tiny red ants lifted from the
dirt by the wind coating me like fine plaster.
The
last building is an ancient, three classroom hall that faces the road at the farthest
end of the courtyard. Like Angkor Wat, this building is crumbling back into the
earth. It is still, however in daily use and houses two classrooms and the Sharing
Foundation Library. It retains the graces of traditional Cambodian architecture
with rotting wooden fluting reaching skyward at the ends of the roof’s eaves.
The buckling backside of the building is buttressed by a long pier of thick supports
which TSF had installed a few years ago. The roof is open to the sky in several
spots, but no one will repair it as they fear the weight of a human might bring
the building down. This building houses two classrooms of uniformed elementary
students earnestly reciting their lessons, and they smile broadly and are quick
to show us their work. They are proud students. {Ed. Note: TSF very much wants
to replace this unsafe building urgently}
In the schoolyard a boy climbs onto tilting table with a chunk of metal in his palm. He leans into the tree trunk next to him and reaches for the car tire rim chained there. Hitting the rim, a sound, metal on metal, “Tink, Tink, Tink, Tink ” draws hundreds of children out of their classrooms and into the courtyard. The air is thick with happy chatter. The teachers call to the children and they form pie shaped columns around the flag that stands in the center of the courtyard. In unison they sing the National Anthem and the flag comes down for the day. The children stand tall and proud. They sing earnestly, loudly, with heart. The principle addresses them and then School is over and the children scatter in every direction, ending another day at Roteang Village School.
The
classrooms, however, will be in use until after dark for TSF’s English program,
now involving nearly 350 students. Some of the grade school children attend, and
other village youth pour in from the high school, 8 km away. Eight bilingual teachers
are arriving, neat and business like, on their mopeds from Phnom Penh, as the
old school continues in use.